Pirates Plank

Archive for July, 2010

Hong Kong has the longest covered escalator in the world. Known as The Central-Mid-Levels Escalator , this unique mode of transportation offers visitors a taste of what it’s like to live in Hong Kong’s very exclusive areas. It starts from Queen’s Road Central, runs to the Hang Seng Bank Building on Des Voeux Road Central, then passes through the Central Market and continues to climb past Hollywood Road and on to the prime Mid-levels residential district.

It’s all free and will take you about 20 minutes and is quicker than walking up, which you can do also, but that can take a terribly long time. The escalator in 800 meters long and moves approximately 36,000 people a day.

The escalator winds its way through some very expensive and exclusive real estate, and allows jump-off points at every street it crosses, which has led to the development of an ‘escalator culture’ consisting of cafes, trendy bars, restaurants, Chinese medicine stalls, an some of the best hotels in Hong Kong .

The only downfall of the Central Mid Levels Escalator is that it only goes in one direction at a time, down towards Central in the morning hours and back up in the afternoon hours. Don’t worry, there are steps alongside, but as mentioned before, those steps make for a hard journey.

Visiting Miami for the first time? Hankering for a great tasting hot-dog? Then look no further than Arbetter’s Hot dogs, located at 8747 SW 40th Street. When you have a crazy hotdog craving, this is the place to go. The hotdogs are good, traditionally boiled, not put on a dog cooker and the French fries are totally awesome, especially the chill-cheese fries. The best hotdog to order is the chili dog with onions. There’s really no other place in all of Miami that serves a better dog.

Arbetter’s has been open since the late 70s and has been a Miami’s family tradition, one generation after the next keep coming by introducing newer family members to Arbette’s. It is family run, and the owner, now passed, used to be the entertainment part of ordering the dog, he use to flip the dog up in the air and catch it with the bun. A single hotdog will only cost you about $2 and fries are also about $2. If you have little ones, they’ll love the corndogs, made fresh on site, none of those frozen pigs on a stick served here!

The place is very small, 20 seats, but you can’t miss the yellow shack and the parking lot is always full. If you’re a tourist and staying at a Miami Spa Resort , sneak out for an afternoon of debauchery and delight and stuff your mouth full of these amazing dogs. Don’t let the cops scare you off, they’re there too, stuffing their faces of what all of Miami knows to be the best dogs ever.

The challenges of law are many, and there are limitless possibilities for a practicing lawyer in the world today. It’s a curious mix of past and present, where one needs to have a thorough understanding of what guides the world of law from the past, and what issues are the most crucial for today. It all adds up to a vision for affecting the future in a positive direction.

It also requires understanding how law works on many levels. Knowledge of how law works on an international scale leads to the development of an understanding of how these specifically apply to a national level. Every lawyer eventually comes to the point where they start to focus on a particular place. Orange County lawyers need to understand the laws affecting the state of California in order to be able to see how these specifically apply to the county they currently serve.

Likewise, a lawyer in Denver will have different issues to face than one who works in Boulder. The history of the place will offer new and interesting insights into the current legal battles of today. Places, like people, are always shifting, and there are nuances and subtleties that carry over into a larger field of influence. The local does connect to the global, and the exciting thing is that the picture is always changing.

Shopping for window treatments can be an extensive process; choosing between vertical and horizontal blinds, picking a color or fabric, or doing something different like shades or shutters. Whatever you decide there is probably a large retail store that carries it for a pretty low price; however, before you make your purchase consider that in most cases you will be sacrificing quality for price and, when it comes to window treatments, that is something that you don’t want to do.

Window treatments are an investment. They are something that you can buy and use for years to come, not something that you want to replace every couple of years. For a little extra money you can have window treatments that not only look nice but also fit your windows perfectly. Most custom window companies will even give you a warranty. Premium quality wood blinds are going to last a lot longer and handle use and abuse better than flimsy low quality blinds. When you buy quality window treatments you are making a solid investment that will probably end up saving you a lot of money down the road.

Safety is also an important factor when it comes to purchasing window treatments, especially if there are children living in your house or visiting on a frequent basis. Dangling cords are a big safety concern when it comes to window treatments. For this reason it is important to make sure that you purchase window treatments that have hidden cords. Shades or vinyl interior shutters are both good choices because shades have interior cords and shutters don’t have cords at all.

Another safety concern with window treatments is lead poisoning. Most, if not all, window treatments sold in the U.S. no longer contain lead; however, with so many products being imported from all over the world it is nearly impossible to know exactly what you are getting when you purchase blinds from a big name retailer that sells 50 different brands of blinds. When you purchase window treatments from a specialty store you can find out exactly where the product is coming from and what it is made of.

To some researching different types of window treatments and specialty companies may seem a little silly; however, when it comes to the safety of your family and investing in a product that will you help you save money in the long run, it is worth the effort.

Is it better to be remembered for the things you did, or the things you didn’t do? If you’re traveling to the nation’s capital, once you’ve checked into one of the four star hotels Washington DC offers its guests, head over to the National Mall, and take a look at the Constitution Gardens . The gardens were dedicated in 1976 on the bicentennial anniversary of the United States. This memorial island in the midst of an artificial lake contains stones which bear the signatures and names of the 56 men who changed the world by the things they did, chiefly signing the Declaration of Independence, which may be found over at the National Archives .

The Constitutional Gardens is a 50 acre park, whose boundaries include the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Constitution Avenue, and the Reflecting Pool. Established by President Richard Nixon, the park is meant as a legacy and tribute to the signers for literally risking death and bringing into the world a new nation. Each year, the annual naturalization ceremony for new citizens is held here and hosted by the National Park Service. However, not everyone who helped form the Constitution signed it. In some cases, the document wasn’t signed because the founder was no longer serving the country in the same office. However, there was one man who could have signed it, but made the choice not to sign. He, too, is remembered, over near the Jefferson Memorial.

The George Mason Memorial remembers the Virginia delegate who led the fight to create a new federal Constitution, then refused to sign the final document. He took a stand against the document and led a fight in Virginia not to ratify the Constitution, and ended up breaking a long friendship with George Washington because of it. Why would he do this? And why would he be remembered for it? This “forgotten Founder” didn’t sign the Constitution because it didn’t abolish the slave trade, nor did it contain enough protections for the individual from the Federal Government. He had written the Virginia Bill of Rights, on which the United States’ Bill of Rights was modeled, and was instrumental in making sure the Bill of Rights were amended to the Constitution later. His memorial features a 72 foot long stone wall and a third larger-than-life sized statue of himself sitting, his legs crossed, next to a circular pool. The memorial was dedicated on April 9th, 2002, eight years ago.